


the price of vulnerability

by annamorris



Series: to view without judgement [3]
Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: F/F, I love writing backstory, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27676943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annamorris/pseuds/annamorris
Summary: Jamie had to grow up too fast.Prompt-fill from Tumblr: "Don't yell at me like I'm a child!" -- "Don't throw scissors!"
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Series: to view without judgement [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023837
Comments: 5
Kudos: 119





	the price of vulnerability

**Author's Note:**

> Very much un-beta'd and written after surgery, so all mistakes are very much my own.

“Don’t yell at me like I’m a bloody child!”

“Don’t throw scissors!” Dani’s protest is weak against Jamie’s surprising anger. She hasn’t seen her girlfriend like this since Miles, well, Peter, had meddled in her rose garden. 

They’d been working in the kitchen, struggling with a new recipe Dani had torn from a magazine. She’d asked Jamie to pass her the scissors to open a package of frozen peas, and the tool had been tossed haphazardly across the countertop, sent skittering to the floor near Dani’s bare foot.

Their standoff lasts only a moment longer before Dani caves. “I’m sorry. I… that wasn’t necessary.”

Jamie shakes her head as if warding off a haze. She pinches the bridge of her nose, a guilty expression plastered across hard features. “No, no, it’s me. I overreacted.” 

“I just worry, you know. That’s all it is,” Dani says. “It’s the teacher in me. Got to keep all my kids safe.” She means it to be a joke, she really does, but she doesn’t miss the way Jamie winces. “Jamie?”

“Ah, I’m fine. It’s fine.” Jamie tries to shrug her off, the way she always does, the way she’s had to her whole life. Just letting things roll off her back as if nothing bothers her, never letting her cracks show. 

“Jamie…” Dani’s prompt is soft, gentle, as if she’s speaking to a cornered animal. 

When Jamie meets her gaze, her eyes are world-weary. They flicker with the memories of someone far older than the lines of her face reveal. Her shoulders seem to carry the weight of several lifetimes, and Dani is determined to share the burden. Jamie sighs and settles on their ratty couch. 

“I’ve, ah, never quite been a kid,” she begins awkwardly. Dani smiles encouragingly. She knows vulnerability does not come easily to Jamie. “Had to grow up fast, you know. ‘Tween caring for myself and a baby, wasn’t much room for recklessness. ‘Specially accidents in the kitchen.” She pauses here, and Dani understands that this isn’t about her. 

It’s about a little girl forced by the world to take on far more than should be expected of a child. 

Jamie runs a nervous hand through her unruly curls before continuing. She shakes her head. “Even in the system, even when the grownups were supposed to be lookin’ after me… well, it was hard to believe a bloke to have your best interests at heart when he had his hand up your top the second his wife left the house.” 

Jamie’s alluded to her time in foster care but never expanded much beyond mentions of pervy men. Dani had suspected, on the rare occasions that she had permitted herself to speculate, that Jamie had seen some of the worst the system had to offer. Dani had never probed, only offered a warm embrace when a frustrated customer raised their voice or someone stepped a bit too close. And, for the most part, that was enough. Jamie would tell her if she wanted to, and until today, she’d never shown any inclination. 

“It’s just a bit strange, even still, having someone to look out for me. Never really been treated like a kid before.” She clears her throat. 

“I know you can take care of yourself,” Dani says sincerely. “I didn’t mean it to come off that way.”

“I know.” Jamie takes her hand. “Just a sore spot. Still getting used to having another person around and all that.” She waves dismissively. 

“Well, you’d better get used to it,” Dani teases. “You don’t have to do everything yourself anymore.”

Jamie hums and lays her head in the crook of Dani’s neck. “Can’t say I’m upset about it.” 

“Just as long as you promise not to go around tossing scissors across the room.” She can all but hear Jamie rolling her eyes.

“Yes, _Miss Clayton_.”

“Oh, is that where we are now?” Dani laughs sweetly, leaning down to meet Jamie’s lips with her own. She can taste the apology, the forgiveness, on her tongue. 

Jamie doesn’t often speak of her past, and Dani, ever patient, will never push. But, after that day, the stories come just a little easier, the weight on Jamie’s shoulders a bit lighter. Their love, built on trust and communication, grows stronger.

**Author's Note:**

> [feel free to chat or send me a prompt on tumblr](https://moonflowerlesbians.tumblr.com)


End file.
